End of Summer and Back to Normal

I guess I mean back to routine. Structure. Knowing pretty much what each day will entail. No more flying by the seat of our pants.

Part of me is looking forward to it. My Type A personality is fond of routine and structure.

Part of me is sad it's already over. I feel like I'm still waiting for summer to happen. I blinked and it's over!

I knew my mom's visit would be the closing of summer. It's just how the timing worked out.

Next year, she'll come for the two weeks before we actually need her (daycare provider goes on vacation). That will hopefully ensure warmer weather (it was surprisingly chilly during mom's visit!)

We've enjoyed mom's visit and her crazy generosity this year. Apparently she still likes to spoil us!

We've enjoyed home-cooked meals every single day.

More egg rolls

We went to a friend's end of the summer party and the girls got to enjoy a giant hot tub (er, heated pool). Everyone got to enjoy a Tom Wahl's food and ice cream truck!

This is my friend Trista. She's trying to get one of her twins out of this thing. We're all laughing at her because it's taking quite a bit of effort and Charlie (the kid inside) is laughing too.

Ha, she finally got him out. 

Steve and I also made a deal with the girls. They got a lot of new stuff while my mom has been visiting. She feels guilty for not living around us, so she spoils them rotten when she's here. 

But, in order for them to keep all their goods and to earn new ones, they had to get rid of 3 garbage bags full of stuff. 

I was very impressed - they got rid of 6 bags of stuff!

On the way to be donated!

Mila chose an LOL Doll and Ava chose a "real" Baby Alive doll. I'd say that's not a bad deal for us, because we were able to basically move the rest of their stuff upstairs and we have less and less toys and shit in our living room. 

We also got Mila to let us get rid of her GIANT Princess Castle Dollhouse. We put it up by the road and when we got home from running errands, it was gone! We had that thing for a good 3 years and it has seen better days. Definitely still functional, so I hope whoever snagged it, enjoys it for another few years! Nothing a coat of paint wouldn't fix. 

And then school starts this week!

Our change in routine will be that we get to drive the girls to school each morning, due to Ava's UPK program not providing transportation. 

We'll need to leave the house by 8:30 now, instead of 7:45. That's a TON of time if you ask me. I feel like I won't be barking so much in the mornings ;)